What is the Isle Royale Institute (IRI)?
By Mark Gleason, Managing Director, Isle Royale Institute, Michigan Technological University

The Isle Royale Institute is a new partnership created to promote healthy environmental awareness and support of Isle Royale National Park and the waters of Lake Superior while providing opportunities for the public to enjoy these areas. 

The Institute was created by staff from Isle Royale National Park and Michigan Technological University (MTU) and was recently joined by staff from the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD).  Initial efforts leading to the creation of the Institute included public presentations by regional experts on board the National Park ship the Ranger III, as it traveled across Lake Superior.  These presentations involved regional experts speaking directly to the public. 

During the last five years, over 500 public presentations have been provided to Park visitors and staff.  The presentations covered a wide range of topics including land conservation issues, Leave-No-Trace Outdoor Ethics, wolf-moose ecological study, geology, climate change, human impact on loon breeding success, amphibians, Lake Superior temperatures, habitat fragmentation, Great Lakes exotics, remote sensing technology, and astronomy.  These presentations were and continued to be popular with the public and have provided a based to build additional Institute programs and other partnership efforts.

The Institute’s first field season was during the summer of 2002 and the educational programs were very successful. A number of activities were undertaken during the Institute’s first year.  These efforts include Park visitor multi-day experiences through the offering of courses for all populations emphasizing previously underrepresented groups. 

Most of the courses are offered in partnership with other organizations.  Elderhostel, Sierra Club-Inner City Outings, U.S. Forest Service, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and Michigan Technological University are among the partners that offered programs during the summer of 2002. 

While most of the courses are offered at the Park, an effort has been made to provide educational activities in other locations.  Courses such as Wilderness First Aid have been taught on the MTU campus in Houghton while staff training for Leave-No-Trace camping skills was conducted in partnership with NPS staff of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore at their Park. 

Additionally, the Institute was involved in a successful grant/project to bring the 180-foot EPA research Ship Lake Guardian to Lake Superior.  The Lake Guardian project provided an unusual opportunity for 20 educators to assist with and learn about a wide range of research activities for one week as the ship traveled on Lake Superior. 

In the summer of 2002, the Institute provided courses for over two hundred individuals and public presentations by regional experts for several thousand Park visitors. These courses included backpacking, day hiking and canoeing.  Participants included inner city teenagers from a number of Midwestern urban areas, undergraduate and graduate students from several universities, and older adults.